


After The Fall

by melancholicInspiration



Category: Uncharted (Video Games)
Genre: Canon Fuckery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-24
Updated: 2020-02-24
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:35:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22876402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melancholicInspiration/pseuds/melancholicInspiration
Summary: Rafe Adler barely survives the wreckage of Avery's ship. A Shoreline merc is struck by compassion at the sight of his body and nurses him back to health.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	After The Fall

**Author's Note:**

> A friend insisted I write this out, so here it is. Might keep it as a lengthy one-shot.

_ Shoreline is supposed to follow either Orca or Nadine off the island, since they did get what they came for and with enough money that most of the men didn’t complain much. But when one of the soldiers finds the unconscious body lying face down in the water near the port of Libertalia, he can't help but stop and move to investigate. It’s near sunset now, so Izaya could have easily missed the body entirely in a shadow. It was moving eerily slow, following the stream of the river, but stopping near a high rocky wall. Whoever it was, their clothes were torn and bloody, with even more blood clotting in short brown hair. The guard felt transfixed by the sight, before they recognized it was Rafe Adler.  _

_ He looks over his shoulder to make sure Nadine isn't looking and goes to pick up the body. He's heavy, and limp. Rafe's head lolls as if not truly connected to anything. It’s an almost sickening sight, and Izaya has no experience in really carrying dead bodies around. Shoreline usually just left the bodies where they lay, carrying on without much care. It didn’t pay to have a heart in this line of work. _

_ There's an extra boat. They're both dead, all things considered. There are lightly inhabited islands, villages they could disappear to. Maybe Rafe would reward him for saving him, if Rafe doesn't survive he could have a quiet life away from everything. Izaya doubts there’s much of a career left for him as a mercenary, but perhaps he could talk the Adler heir into being a bodyguard. If he lived. _

_ It's the fourth day after he told Nadine he would clean up the area, see if he could scour anything of use. In reality, he had stolen a first aid kit and found a suitable hut to hide Rafe in. It's the fourth day, and he can now see the sign of the man breathing on a makeshift cot. He had heard stories from the other mercs of Rafe's anger, of the rift between Rafe and Nadine, and can't help but worry of the reaction if he ever woke up.  _

_ Izaya did manage to dress Rafe’s wounds, and knew that if he was awake at all, he would surely wince in pain from the cleaning and the stitching he had to do. Perhaps it was foolish, but maybe not. After all, maybe it was that action that led to him breathing now. He's never been that close, in any way or form, to Rafe. He's supposed to be a merc, he's seen dead bodies before. So, why is Rafe different?  _

_ Why indeed? Why does the broken body of a broken man who has lost everything pull on his heart? He tries to pretend it's about the money, it would be infinitely more sensible for this to be about the money.  _

_ There are many times in which he tries not to overthink this, because if Rafe was anyone else, he would have had bullets from Izaya's own gun in him. Yet, there are no bullets anywhere on Rafe. Is it because of that that he jumped in the shallow water to grab him? Is it because no one else noticed or bothered to look for him? _

_ When he thinks of that, it catches him a bit off guard and he gazes at Rafe’s still unconscious, shirtless form. Nadine and Orca didn’t pause for a second to wait for Rafe to join them. The Drakes, he scowled at the thought, well the Drakes probably did this to him. No one stabs a man the way that Rafe was stabbed and regrets it. _

_ Why does he feel like he wants Rafe to feel like someone did notice? He wants Rafe to know he noticed. If only, because having him noticing would make it easier for him to be the man’s bodyguard when he woke.  _

_ Shit, that’s the third time he’s considered being Rafe Adler’s bodyguard.  _

_ Rafe never noticed him before, he didn't know if Rafe noticed any of the average mercs. He was just here to nurse him back to health. Then, he could go retire with the money that Nadine paid him, and that would be it. Even if he never got employed by the nearly dead man, he could find something else worthwhile. _

_ It didn't stop him from watching closely to see his breathing. Remembered how desperate he was to perform CPR on the man. It wasn't anything resembling a kiss, he was just trying to save his life. It hurt seeing a man that was so confident, so high and mighty, brought down like this. Some of his now-ex-coworkers would talk praise about him, and whispered warnings about not getting on his bad side. It was a bit difficult to imagine that side now, but not impossible. _

_ Izaya’s hands are gentle, stroking sweaty hair from his forehead. Rafe now has a fever, but he seems to be struggling through it. He still leaves to get a damp piece of cloth and runs it through the river - he hadn’t strayed far from where he found him. It wasn’t like Shoreline would ever return to this place, and too much exertion would have hurt both of them in the long run. Even though he's more used to dealing death with them, he wonders if he could always be this gentle  _ ~~_ with Rafe.  _ ~~

_ Why would he be entertaining these thoughts, of being gentle with such a cold-hearted man? With a man that so many were afraid of, that even Nadine Ross had come to despise? _

_ Izaya had come back into the hut, filling up a spare canteen with some water on the thirteenth day when he saw something that made him drop it, the metal making a dull ‘thud’ against the dirt covered floor. Rafe was sitting up. Hair was hanging in front of his face, so much that he couldn’t see his eyes, not in the dusk of early evening. He hadn’t said anything, and the realization that he had been caught had sent his heart up into his throat, but whether from excitement or dread, he couldn’t be sure.  _

_ “Mr. Adler….” He started to say, and began to approach him, picking up the canteen from the ground and offering it to him. Surely, the injured man must be thirsty. Still, no response other than him grabbing it and drinking nearly all of it. _

_ Then he looked up at Izaya, not with the coldness that he thought there would be, but with interest.  _

_ “Why did you save me?” _


End file.
